School resource officers protect students, build rapport

Even the officers themselves acknowledge that their presence might deter a future attack, they are unlikely to stop one already under way.

By Brian FreskosBrian.Freskos@StarNewsOnline.com

When fights break out, Officer Craig Melville is there.When a young girl wants to vent about her parents, Melville is there, too. Last week, Melville was there wearing his blue uniform, standard-issue for Wilmington Police Department officers like him. A gun on his hip, he stood in the hallway at New Hanover High School as chattering students shuffled to their next class. "What's up, man?" Melville called out as the students passed. "What's up?" replied a passing boy, slapping Melville five. A girl, her black hair tied back, walked up and tried to wrap her little arms around Melville's frame, her head barely reaching his chest. "Are you gonna be in court?" she asked, starting to walk away. Melville had cited the girl for fighting on a previous school day. But he knew she was otherwise a good girl. "I'll be in court," he said, cocking a half-smile. "You gonna be there?" "Yes I am." "You better." The irony of someone hugging an authority figure who may soon face them in a courtroom is not lost on Melville. But the students here know it is not personal. Melville has a job to do. "One day, you may have to arrest them," Melville said later. "But the next, they see you in the halls and give you a fist pump." The number of school-based police officers like Melville has increased in the weeks since the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary as concerned parents demand more security in their children's schools. But criminologists, security experts and even the officers themselves acknowledge that while their presence might deter a future attack, they are unlikely to stop one already under way.

New Hanover, Pender and Brunswick counties have all expanded existing programs to put school resource officers in the districts' elementary schools. There is now at least one officer – some have two or three – in every school in all three counties. If the expansion continues indefinitely, the annual cost is likely to reach into the millions of dollars. Preventing a tragedy like Sandy Hook is not the sole duty of a school resource officer.On any given day, Melville has to wear several different hats: mentor, peacekeeper, law enforcer. He knows that the best way to thwart a mass shooting is to catch wind of it before it occurs. He is building a rapport that turns students into informants. "They don't open up until they know you," Melville said.President Obama called for increasing the nation's use of school resource officers earlier this month as part of a broader effort to curb violent crime. Yet school resource officer programs around the country have come under fire from critics who oppose gun-toting guards in schools, arguing such a move complicates the learning process.New Hanover County Sheriff Ed McMahon, who worked as a school resource officer at Laney High School in the early 1990s, is a staunch advocate of the program."If you train officers correctly, then I think it's a great way in which you can form a rapport and be a role model," McMahon said. "Plus, from a security sense, you have someone with a badge and a gun in there."But the Justice Policy Institute, a think tank in Washington, D.C., released a report in 2011 that linked school resource officers to higher dropout rates. Criminologists say student arrests soar once law enforcement is introduced to the school system because misbehavior that once resulted in suspension is now subject to criminal charges. In its report, the policy institute cites instances where students were arrested for swearing at teachers or throwing spitballs. When that misconduct is funneled through the court system, students develop a criminal record and the consequences that such a background brings, said Tracy Velazquez, the institute's executive director, in an interview. Matthew Theriot, an associate professor in the college of social work at the University of Tennessee, cautioned that while school resource officers can effect positive change, arresting students may stigmatize them and cause them to fall behind. Theriot said the officers need a working knowledge of child and adolescent development, as well as appropriate intervention strategies for students acting disorderly. "There's some SROs who really get down and work with the kids, not in a formal way, but out there playing basketball at recess or being available to students in the hallway," he said. "They really come across as an ally as opposed to just another authority figure. Those SROs tend to make a positive contribution to the school environment."

Melville said the three officers at New Hanover High focus on major crimes such as serious assaults and weapon possession. In many instances, pressing criminal charges is a decision for the victim. Melville remembered one instance where a teacher was assaulted but declined to pursue the matter criminally due to worries of how it would affect the student. "That's like the smallest thing I do, is arrest kids," Melville said. "We're not here to get kids in trouble. We're here to keep kids out of trouble."And that often comes from rapport built every day in the halls. A sense of humor helps too.Last Wednesday morning, Melville and his partner at the school, Cpl. E.J. Granda, a sheriff's deputy, were patrolling the halls when they ran into a boy wearing a navy blue hoodie heading into the principal's office. The boy wanted permission to go home to get a charger for his ankle monitor, which he forgot to recharge the night before. He planned on sitting in class with the monitor plugged into the wall. He feared letting it die would draw the ire of his probation officer, but if he left school without permission, he would not be allowed back. "I can't miss days, man," he told the officers. "I respect that," Granda said. "But next time, make sure you charge it. You probably don't like getting wrapped up in the cord in the middle of the night, as much as you break dance in your bed."Granda knew the boy was trying to do the right thing, a fact that might get lost if Granda met him on the street."He's doing better," Granda said. "I'll give him that much."